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SXSW Dispatch: Search is on for talent to bring to Colorado

By Quentin Young SecondStoryGarage.com

Posted:
03/14/2013 06:03:27 PM MDT

Updated:
03/14/2013 06:10:23 PM MDT

Dustin Boyd works for Lyons concert producer and music venue Planet Bluegrass, which sent him to SXSW to scout acts. Thursday, he trolled venues around Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, waiting to hear something that caught his ear.
(Quentin Young/SecondStoryGarage.com)

Ashley Dean and Quentin Young of SecondStoryGarage.com are covering South By Southwest daily at secondstorygarage.com. Or follow them on Twitter at @AshaleyJill and @QyoungTC -- or @2storygarage. And watch for highlights each day in the Daily Camera.

AUSTIN, Texas -- If you're a band playing the South By Southwest Music Festival, Dustin Boyd has a piece of advice for you: Make every second in your set count.

"From a band's perspective, you never know who's in the room," he said Thursday.

Boyd, for example, might be in the room. But he probably won't stay for more than a song. So you need to be quick about impressing him.

He works for Planet Bluegrass, a Lyons concert producer and music venue, which sent him to SXSW to scout acts. He pops in and out of venues at an up-tempo pace, trying to take maximum advantage of the festival's bounty. Hundreds upon hundreds of bands perform here during the festival's days and nights, starting this past Tuesday and winding down Sunday.

In his first 24 hours at the festival, Boyd saw 23 bands, not to mention the many whose music came to his ears as he walked the city's downtown streets. He logged 8.5 miles on foot in that time, according to an app on his iPhone.

Boyd's iPhone serves as a repository of notes and pictures of the acts he's seen. Here's what he wrote for himself about a band called Lucius he saw at the High Road Touring showcase:

It doesn't quite come through in these notes, but Lucius is one of the bands that really impressed Boyd. He expects to come home to Lyons with five or six bands the Planet might try to work with.

Bryan Lipman is another Boulder-area music professional working the scene at SXSW. He's a national booking agent for Crescendo Artists.

"This trip, my main goal is networking," he said.

Lipman spends a lot of time talking with venue managers and festival promoters, but he often communicates with them remotely. SXSW offers an opportunity to meet those people, put faces to names and strengthen bonds.

Like Boyd, he's scouting bands. He expects to check out up to 15 bands a day.

It's not all work and no play for Boyd and Lipman. As music fans, they carve out time to check out acts they just want to see for the fun of it.

Lipman went to watch his friends in the Boulder band West Water Outlaws. And Boyd went to watch a hip-hop artist he likes, Hopsin. Hopsin is not going to perform as part of a Planet Bluegrass lineup any time soon. But for Boyd, it was the indulgence of a "guilty pleasure," he said.

But other acts he discovers in Austin could soon find themselves performing for Boulder County audiences.

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